I need a new kitchen scale. I gave away my old digital one when I moved because the display was really hard to read. I prefer the look of classic scales (no batteries!) but I don't know whether they are as accurate as digital ones. I'm overwhelmed with the options on Amazon, since reviews seem to cover such a wide range - I guess people have very different expectations when it comes to scales?

Anyway, if you have one you love, please tell me what kind it is!

_________________"I feel like it's not a real political discussion if I'm not morally opposed to something I don't understand." - ndpittman

agreed, mine was gifted to me but i know it came from target and i think it was their own store brand too. i doubt it was more than $20 or $30. i've had it for well over a decade and while i have had to change the batteries a couple of times, it still works great. it does ounces and grams and then there is a super cool "tare" function where you can set your bowl on top, press "tare" and the scale will "zero out" so then you can add/weigh your ingredient into your bowl.

_________________"....but I finally found block tempeh a few weeks ago with the intent to give it my virginity." -Moon

I've had two digital kitchen scales, one Salter and one Oxo. Both are good scales and I'd recommend either brand. I only had to replace the Salter with the Oxo because I was stupid and melted it on the stove accidentally.

If you like to bake a lot with recipes in weight, I recommend getting a scale with 1 gram increments that has a 11 lbs (5 kg) max. I like the 11 lb max because I can weigh ingredients directly in my mixing bowl as I'm adding them, taring in between. The 1 g increment is more important than a high max weight though because I think it's a necessity to be able to weigh to the gram for any baking recipe in weight (i.e. salt in a bread recipe).

I had a simple non-electronic one I got at the Bijenkorf in Amsterdam for a few years that worked just fine but wasn't very precise. A couple years ago I splurged for an electronic nutritional scale and I love it. I don't use the nutritional stuff that much (though it was helpful when my midwife was having me track protein - not a vegan specific thing! preggos get equal opportunity protein pressure!), but I like that I can easily switch between metric and English.. I don't love that it defaults to metric, but I can live with that, dividing by 450 to get lbs isn't that hard if I'm too lazy to press the button. Most recipes I have that go by weight are in metric anyway so if it were the other way around I'd probably get annoyed too, because I'm just impossible to please.

I find having SOME kind of scale is really important to me, since I noticed that a lot of the European cookbooks I had that had not been Americanized were just not getting used because they tend to measure things by weight that American cookbooks would not.

Thanks for all the input, folks! Still not sure what I'm going to go with but I have some ideas now.

If I do get an analog scale, it would probably be this one: http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precisio ... 6T4GJLL5FU - I actually don't often have to weigh things any more precisely than to the ounce so it might be enough. But I'm going to wait a bit to make sure I'm buying what I really need.

_________________"I feel like it's not a real political discussion if I'm not morally opposed to something I don't understand." - ndpittman

I would definitely go digital - and to be able to tare as you go - and a big enough size that you can put a bowl or a plate on it and still read what's going on. I'm converting my recipes from cups & spoons to weight now I've gone "professional" - what A HUGE difference it makes. So much more consistent.

edit: and if you're gonna spend the money and get something, make sure it will fulfill your requirements - even when you're going to want it to do more than you do right now. nothing worse than buying something once, then having to buy again.

I've had the oxo scale with the pull out display (which is really useful for big bowls) for years. I use it really frequently, both for cooking and carb counting. I think the tare function alone makes digital worth it. I also like that it's flat and thin, so I can store it on its side with my cutting boards.

i had a salter which worked well for years, but it was difficult to clean, since there was an elevated section of glass above a button section, and i would always be afraid of getting water in the buttons. eventually, water must have gotten in there because the LCD stopped working all that well. (some lines wouldn't show up, or would be super faint.)

we then got a different one where the glass spanned the full length of the scale and the buttons were on the side. so-far, super easy to clean.

just a thing to consider too - i have an analogue/classic looking scale made by salter, so the display is vertical and i have to crouch/bend over to have my eyes at counter level to see exactly where the dial is. it's kinda a pain in the butt, but i can deal with it.